Minutes of the plenary meeting of September 2003

Transcription

1 EUROPEAN COMMISSION EUROSTAT Directorate F: Agricultural, environmental, food and regional statistics Unit F-3: Environment and sustainable development Doc. ENV/033/02 (2003) Available in English only Minutes of the plenary meeting of September 2003 Eurostat Unit F3 Joint Meeting of the Working Groups "Environment Statistics" and "Environmental Accounts" Joint Eurostat/EFTA group Meeting of September 2003 BECH building Room Quetelet

2 Joint meeting of the Working Groups Environment and Sustainable Development and Economic Accounts for the Environment September 2003 Bech Building Room Quetelet 1. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA The agenda was adopted with some changes to the order of the items. 2. MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING The minutes of the previous meeting were tabled for information only. They were first sent out to participants in the week following the meeting of September They were approved by participants within 10 working days of the meeting in a written procedure. 3. CO-OPERATION WITH OTHER SERVICES 3.1 Environment DG DG ENV gave a résumé of the Sustainable Development (SD) Strategy, from the Lisbon Council to the Gothenburg Council, which expanded Lisbon s socio-economic strategy to a sustainable development strategy (SDS) by adding an environmental element. The set of Structural indicators that accompanies the annual Spring Report (on the progress of the Lisbon Strategy) from the Commission to the European Council was also expanded to include environmental issues. Ten potential Structural indicators for further development were identified as priority by the Environment Council. A report on these is planned for October 2003, but will first be circulated for comment. However there is not much room for new indicators: the last Spring report included 107 indicators and sub-indicators presented as graphs. This is unmanageable. In future, there will probably be no more than 12 to 18 indicators of which 2 or 3 will be environment related. A review of the SD Strategy is due to start in January 2004 and will finish in September. Current Eurostat work on sustainable development indicators will provide important input to this review process. Meanwhile, DG ENV has relaunched the Environmental Headline Indicators, to be published in There are 11 of these which cover the main areas of the 6 th Environmental Action Programme. The 6EAP also foresees a number of Thematic Strategies covering Waste recycling, Sustainable use and management of resources, Sustainable use of pesticides, Soil protection, Protection and conservation of the marine environment, Air pollution, and Urban environment. These are at different stages of development, but it is expected that all strategies will be adopted by Regional Policy DG DG REGIONAL POLICY gave a historical overview of the multi-annual programme and the Regional Development Fund. Over the last ten years Spatial Planning and rural development have been priorities; now the implications of enlargement are to the fore. A need for a better scientific basis for policies and actions using more extensive exchange of information, new technologies and geographical data has been identified. In the late 1990s, the European Spatial Planning Observation Network (ESPON) was set up for this reason. It is now established on a 50/50 basis with Member States and a budget of 12 million euros. It runs until 2006 with 15 research themes. It is hoped that it will give information to aid the polycentric urban development of Europe, giving a better balance of main centres away from the central pentagon bounded by London, Hamburg, Paris and Northern Italy. It will also encourage other areas of economic integration and address the problems of periphery. The 3 rd Regional Cohesion Report is currently being completed. This should show what scope there is for the ENV/033/02 (2003) Page 2

3 update of spatial development with 25 Member States. At present, 40% of the population and 25% of the GDP is concentrated in 20% of the territory. There are 2 environment themes in this; natural and technological hazards; trends in the management of natural heritage. These overlap with the work of organisations such as, EEA, DG ENV, etc. Information is needed at a more detailed level, so there is a movement away from NUTS 2 to NUTS 3 level as this better reflects local movements. 3.3 EEA The EEA spoke about their Corporate Strategy for This is based on the 6 th EAP and will have as its priorities: 1. Strategic approaches to providing an information system 2. Action on tackling climate change 3. Action on nature and biodiversity 4. Action on environment and health and quality of life. 5. Action on sustainable use and management of natural resources and wastes 6. Action on international issues 7. Crosscutting policy assessment The main focus will be on communication, developing capacities for integrated assessments, which will include the PRELUDE (Promoting European Local and Regional Sustainability in the Digital Age) programme, as well as integrated spatial assessment using GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security), INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe), CORINE Land Cover and Land Accounts. To undertake this, there will be more flexible reporting and the EEA website will become the main tool for dissemination. A priority in 2005 will be the State of the Environment report (SOER) which will contain one core report and eight sub-reports on selected issues. 3.4 Research DG DG Research gave more information on the plans for INSPIRE, which is intended to bring together diverse data sets in a geo-referenced environment, to build up layers of different information and to bring out linkages not always otherwise seen in a systematic way. 4. REPORT OF WORK CARRIED OUT IN 2003 AND PLANNED WORK PROGRAMME Theme 70: Sustainable Development and related indicator work Sustainable Development Indicators A. Presentation - Doc. ENV/WG/020/4.1.1 (2003) Eurostat introduced the work of the ESS Task Force on Sustainable Development Indicators. The synergies with the Structural Indicators exercise were described but the differences in terms of time horizon and priorities were also made explicit. The Task Force has drafted a framework for SDI which integrates the policy priorities of the SD Strategy, the communication on global partnership and the WSSD commitments. In the interim report of the Task Force, the SPC has been invited to endorse the work plan set-up by the Task Force and particularly the change in the priority list with the support to be given to the 2004 review of the SD Strategy in proposing already from early 2004 an initial list of SDI. DK emphasised the need to consolidate existing statistics and to use existing indicators experience as much as possible. FR noted that a short list of indicators could be variable over time and that the actual number of indicators is not so important. GR explained that lack of human and financial resources means they would have great difficulty meeting any requests for new data for SDI. EEA mentioned the relevance of their core ENV/033/02 (2003) Page 3

4 set of indicators to be adopted in a few weeks for the SDI work. Given the resource constraints that most statistical services are working under, DK would like to see closer co-operation between the statistical network and the EEA s network, and emphasised the need for countries to agree on a coherent national position before attending international meetings. NO informed the other participants about the adoption of a national plan including the development of national indicators. Reporting activities on SDI are seen as not adequately coordinated with other initiatives. NO would also recommend a greater integration of indicators like with the Chemical Risk Indicator. NO supports the opening of the TF to additional members as it reinforces its legitimacy. BE asked IT to describe the objectives of the seminar to be organised by the IT presidency at the end of September The Chairman concluded on the need to carefully coordinat e the SDI exercise with other indicator-related work, as well as co-ordination between the different data delivery bodies within the countries themselves Structural Indicators The on-going work on Structural Indicators was presented. The 2003 Spring Report included several new indicators: Fish catches from stocks that have been assessed as below sustainable limits. This indicator was prepared by the Fisheries DG, based on data from ICES, and covers all waters that are managed by the EU, including jointly with others. Protected areas. This indicator is divided into two, one on areas protected under the Habitats Directive and the other areas protected under the Birds Directive. While it is known that there is some overlap in the areas covered by these directives, it is not known how great this overlap is; therefore it is not possible to add the two to give a single indicator Proposed new Structural indicators Eurostat and DG Environment explained that the Commission intends to prepare a paper for the Council examining the relevance of the Council's proposed open list of environment related indicators. This is essential before agreeing to start work on the development of the priority indicators identified by the Council. Work on this has been delayed and the draft of the report is not yet available Eco-efficiency indicators A. Presentation - Doc. ENV/WG/022/4.1.4 (2003) The contractor presented an overview of the intermediate results of this Eurostat project. The work has looked at the availability of data to evaluate eco-efficiency at meso level (NACE two digit), and at NUTS 2 level, where possible. NACE DG24 "Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products" was used to illustrate the work. The work, based on data available in the New Cronos database, uses value added at factor costs in relation to a particular environmental pressure e.g. waste, to estimate eco-efficiency indicators for EU15 industry. The approach takes the basic concept of eco-efficiency, and develops it further, towards a number of distinct indicators ranging from material requirement and resource productivity to eco-intensity. As the interest is in trends, long time-series are needed to calculate the ratios. The preliminary results for this project suggest that the eco-efficiency of NACE DG24 have improved over the past 15 years. But the trend in the ratio alone does not give enough information. It is often necessary to provide two levels of indicator, the performance indicator and an explanatory indicator, to help understand what is behind the trend. The results have been tested with individual companies and with a number of policy makers and their reactions have been taken into account. Depending on data availability, eco-efficiency indicators will also be estimated for ENV/033/02 (2003) Page 4

5 the other industrial branches as far as possible. The final report is expected to be ready by the end of Participants expressed interest in the eco-efficiency work. NO expressed surprise that NAMEA data for air emissions had not been included in the remit of the project, as it could be beneficial for the project. The Chairman explained that the project had started a number of years ago, when no proper database for NAMEA had been developed, making access to the data difficult. The link to NAMEA will be more easily included now that Environmental Accounts work and Environment Statistics are in the same unit The participants appreciated the work on eco-efficiency, which could also be useful in the context of sustainable development indicators. Future work should look also at NAMEA data Agri-Environmental Indicators (incl. Pesticides) A. Presentation Eurostat gave a presentation of the progress in the work on agri-environmental indicators. Since January 2003 the Indicator Report on the Integration of Environmental Concerns into the Agriculture Policy (IRENA) operation (managed by the European Environment Agency (EEA)) is has been preparing a report on the 35 agri-environmental indicators of the Commission. This is due at the end of In this field of work, inter-institutional co-operation between DG Agriculture, DG Environment, the Joint Research Centre (JRC), EEA and Eurostat is functioning efficiently. Exchanges with Member States (MS) took place during the Working Group (WG) on Agriculture and Environment on 3-4 December 2002 and the next WG meeting will take place on October Co-operation with OECD is ongoing for the agrienvironmental indicators in general and for the joint nutrient balances specifically. Work on organic farming was transferred to Unit F-5 in April The state of the Technical Action Plan for improving Agricultural Statistics (TAPAS) actions on agrienvironmental indicators was presented: TAPAS 2001 (9 actions in 8 MS), TAPAS 2002 (10 actions in 9 MS) and TAPAS 2003 (13 actions in 8 MS). Eurostat reported on the workshop on pesticides statistics, which was focussed on how the ESS can address the data needs for the implementation of the Strategy for the sustainable use of pesticides. 40 experts attended the workshop: DG ENV introduced the Strategy. The statistics that are currently available were discussed, and it became clear that more and better-harmonised usage data is required. The only EU wide data source is industry European Crop Protection Association (ECPA). Comparisons with surveys in MS showed that the ECPA data strongly underestimate pesticides use. It was decided that the countries with regular surveys would meet EPCA on October 8, 2003, to discuss whether and how the ECPA survey could be improved. Eurostat will work on a harmonised electronic questionnaire and would like to discuss a more useful pesticides classification. Other data sources such as Prodcom and COMEXT will be evaluated for their usefulness. A half-day of the next Agri-Environment Working Group (WG) meeting in October 29-30, 2003 will be dedicated to further methodological questions on pesticides data collection. Concerning TAPAS: In October Eurostat will present a draft analytical report of the TAPAS pesticides actions which have been carried out so far. The status of the on-going projects with M S was presented (TAPAS 2001:10 projects, 1 stopped, TAPAS 2002: 7 projects, TAPAS 2003: 5 projects, TAPAS 2004: selection ongoing). The EEA inquired whether Eurostat is aware of the EUROHARP project from DG RESEARCH and if it takes into consideration the first results in its work on N balances. Eurostat said that the gross balance computes the N surplus, but does not quantify the shave of the losses to soil, water or air. The EUROHARP work on the quantification of these losses complements the gross N balances. ENV/033/02 (2003) Page 5

6 There was no further discussion on pesticides. Work on agri-environmental indicators and pesticides will continue as planned and presented to the working group Transport/Environment Indicators A. Presentation The objective of this work is to serve the Commission s indicator and data needs, especially the Sustainable Development Strategy, European Climate Change Programme, Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Mechanism, Common Transport Policy, Clean Air For Europe, Spring Report, Transport and Environment Reporting Mechanism. Over the past year work has concentrated on the transport structural indicators, TERM, TRENDS, support to TREMOVE, and aircraft emissions within the context of climate change. Over the coming year the emphasis will be on extending TERM to acceding, candidate and EFTA countries, and it is hoped that the TERM Task Force will be able to meet. Major challenges to the work are the ever-growing demand, limited resources and lack of a common vision between partners, with the risk of TERM becoming irrelevant. The TERM Task Force should work towards a unified vision within the ESS and make concrete proposals on the future of TERM. In particular it should discuss concepts, sources, methods, assessment of quality and reliability, indicator and data needs, use of centralised estimates, scenarios and projections. One or two countries in addition to Denmark, France and Italy would be welcome to participate. DK confirmed that it wishes to continue with the work it started with LT and to participate in the Task Force. NO stressed the need for a coordinated effort by the ESS to develop Europe-wide norms and expressed a willingness to be a part of TERM. NO also asked for a clarification of funding discussed in previous meetings. Eurostat responded that support and funding were uncertain at this point in time and the ESS should concentrate on developing its own vision of how it wanted TERM to develop. This should be tackled within the Task Force. DG Environment voiced its support for TERM and asked how it could be pushed higher up the agenda. EEA expressed its support for integration in general, but would move from annual paper publications to web-based dissemination as many indicators slow to change. The ESS cannot rely on EU funding for new statistics: it may come; it may not. Nevertheless, concrete steps should be taken to develop TERM through the Task Force. 4.2 Theme 71: Environment Statistics OECD-EUROSTAT Joint Questionnaire A. Presentation - Doc. ENV/WG/023/4.2.1 (2003) The work on follow up of the 2002 Joint Questionnaire was presented, together with the light annual questionnaire, sent out for the first time in 2003 to provide data for the Waste Structural Indicator and the potential indicator on water use. NO requested clarification of the reporting cycle. DK asked how the new questionnaires were agreed. Eurostat replied that the complete joint questionnaire (JQ) will continue to be sent out every even year in March. The complementary reduced questionnaire will be sent out every year and will contain only the politically important parameters. This was agreed in June 2002 at the Eurostat questionnaire meeting. The frequency for the regional questionnaire remains to be discussed. Several delegates (BE, NO, EEA) raised the problem of the co-ordination of the Water Questionnaire with ENV/033/02 (2003) Page 6

7 the Water Framework Directive (WFD). DG ENV underlined the importance of both the WFD and the JQ. Eurostat replied that close collaboration with DG ENV and EEA already exists and will be intensified. Reducing the response burden for Member States is one of the main topics of this collaboration. IT raised the problem of resources and asks about the possibility of financial support. Eurostat replied that no promises could be made at this time. EEA declared its readiness to pre-fill tables 8 and 9 of the Water Questionnaire for EEA also suggested the use of SERIEE for expenditure data and of water accounts data for the Water Questionnaire. OECD highlighted the need to keep full compatibility with non-eu countries through close collaboration with OECD and UN. Eurostat will make a better schedule for the questionnaires and will remind countries of the timetable before questionnaires are sent out. For the Water Questionnaire, particular attention will be given to the response burden with reference to other data collections, and to international comparability. Countries are requested to send the 2003 questionnaire data as soon as possible Regional Questionnaire A. Presentation - Doc. ENV/WG/024/4.2.2 (2003) Eurostat introduced the chronology of data collection of regional environment statistics in the EU. The questionnaire launched in June 2003 (REQ2003) is the third exercise, but the first carried out jointly with the OECD. The REQ2003 questionnaire includes 14 new parameters. The deadline for providing answers was set at 15 October Depending on the results of the 2003 exercise, Eurostat may suggest making this a more regular exercise and introducing a periodicity of two years between each data collection on regional statistics (odd-numbered years). DG REGIO called for regular collection of environment data at a regional level, as they are needed for Cohesion Reports. One of the objectives of the reform of structural funds is to give more importance to environmental concerns. DK and FI made strong reservations about the Eurostat suggestion that this questionnaire should be disseminated on a regular basis. DK requested a formal consultation of Member States and favoured the setting-up of a legal obligation. FI mentioned that additional data collection of this kind was almost impossible without extra funds. IT supported by DE recognised the importance of this questionnaire but emphasised the need for additional financial resources. ES supported the importance of REQ2003 and the establishment of a bi-annual questionnaire, but wondered about the list of variables to be measured. The OECD mentioned on that point that the list of variables could evolve. DG REGIO suggested the creation of a working group to look at the list of variables every two years. Although recognising that some variables are more complex than others and that NUTS2 is not always the most pertinent level, DG REGIO advocated that these obstacles should not stop the rest of the work. FR noted that in some cases there are good reasons for discrepancies between the sum of regional data and national data. Eurostat replied that changes to the data sent by the countries are made after consultation with the country concerned. The chairman reminded participants of the deadline for the 2003 regional questionnaire. Eurostat will formally consult Member States and associated countries about their opinion on the proposal to make the regional environment data collection bi-annual. Eurostat will organise a meeting in 2004 to define the contents of the future regional questionnaire. ENV/033/02 (2003) Page 7

8 4.2.3 Waste statistics A. Presentation A presentation was made of work done over the past few months on the implementation of the Waste Statistics Regulation (WStatR), following its adoption at the end of In particular, details were given of pilot studies on waste statistics and other implementation activities in The next meeting of the sub-group on waste statistics will be held at the end of November The participants welcomed the adoption of the WStatR and underlined the importance of the accompanying implementation measures, amongst which is the development of the manual. Eurostat will continue the work programme for the implementation of the WStatR Water statistics A. Presentation - Doc. ENV/WG/025/4.2.4 (2003) Eurostat reported on recent Eurostat work on Water Statistics. This has been limited in the past year, due to human resources problems. In addition to the questions on how to improve responses to table 7 and on how to treat run-off water in the summary table, he asked the delegates whether legal cover for the Water Questionnaire would be useful. On the question of the treatment of run-off water in the summary table, IT, NL and FR suggested dissociating the values in table 7 from the summary table (first alternative in the document). NL said that the Water Statistics manual would help to improve responses to table 7. ES is in favour of legal cover, whereas FR prefers gentlemen's agreement. BE and NO highlighted the potential overlap with the Water Framework Directive (WFD). BE underlined that mandatory data requests will have priority. EEA replied that reporting for WFD is not yet completely defined; probably bridges will be implemented between WFD data and JQ data to avoid double reporting. UN drew attention to the water accounts web-site where the definition of water statistics is currently being discussed (contact UN Envstat by to receive a password). UN also underlined the importance of coordination with the Global Environmental Monitoring System (GEMS) network and with FAO. No clear recommendation was given on the question of legal cover for water statistics. Table 7 is considered to be very important and efforts for the improvement of the data situation are required. For run-off rainwater, the first alternative in the document should be chosen. Close collaboration with WFD, GEMS and FAO are required to reduce the response burden Hazardous materials A. Presentation - Doc. ENV/WG/026/4.2.5 (2003) Eurostat presented the status of the three years project on the development of a set of indicators to describe chemical risks. The project started in At the end of 2004 a set of indicators to monitor the implementation of the new EU chemicals policy will be available. During the first project phase a framework for the development of a chemicals index was defined. Instead of selecting indicators and then ENV/033/02 (2003) Page 8

9 trying to find the contribution of each of the indicators to the index, an index scheme has been systematically derived. A matrix of source indicators on the one hand and impact areas other was introduced. The current state of development will be discussed with a wider group of experts at a workshop on October 2003, and recommendations will be taken into account for the further development in the third phase of the project. NO supports the framework and the chosen approach, as it seems to be the only way to deal with the complex area. Impact areas are important to consider, but complicated, so there is a lot of developing work still required. Chemicals are very high on the Norwegian political agenda and some methodological work has been done in the country. NO urges Eurostat to send out signals to NSIs that this is an important area of work. NO asked why other types of chemicals (pesticides, cosmetics) are excluded from the system. The selection criteria for Risk Areas should be better explained. NO will participate in the workshop on October. Eurostat supported the need for sending strong political signals to countries, as did DG ENV. Pesticides are excluded as they are regulated differently, but also here a new policy is under development and risk indicators are being developed. Chemicals to produce cosmetics are being considered. FR stated that the presentation did not address the massive and detailed data needs to build up and operate such an indicator system. Eurostat replied that data should be reported by Industry to the new REACH system and that no further data collections from NSIs are planned so far. Methodological work done in other forums is accou nted for. However, if it should turn out that REACH will not provide the data needed, this will have to be discussed again. BE asks whether the Health Indicators developed by the WHO have been considered in the project. Eurostat confirmed that this is the case. SE remarked that as for chemical risks, all the presentations heard required new data collections, and the ESS will have to find new ways to solve this. Politicians should be asked what their real needs are. Current human and budget resources are not at all sufficient to cope with new and projected demands. Furthermore SE asked for a complete list of all data reporting requirements in the environmental area. DG ENV stated that they would pass on the request for stronger political messages on the importance of the issue. The EEA gave information about a reporting obligations database that is currently available at the EEA. Methodological questions will be discussed in more detail at the workshop in October The PHARE project on environment statistics A. Presentation A summary of the history and the future PHARE projects was presented. With respect to the 2003 project on environmental accounts, PHARE countries were asked to specify their priorities among the various environmental accounts topics. This was followed by the main conclusions of the project on Industrial and Hazardous Waste. HU thanked Eurostat for the PHARE projects, which were all very helpful. HU has set up an ambitious work programme to establish environmental accounts. SL will start to work on NAMEA Air next year. ENV/033/02 (2003) Page 9

10 4.2.7 Medstat-ENV A. Presentation The results of the first MEDSTAT-Environment project were presented together with the work programme for the new project MED-ENV II, which started in April NO asked why they could not bid for the tender of MED-ENV II and was invited to check with DG AIDCO - who is responsible for the contractual part of the project. Eurostat provides only the technical coordination. FR and IT, who participated in the first MED-ENV, expressed their positive view of the project and stressed its importance. UN declared the necessity for close collaboration with Eurostat in order to avoid double data collection. UN has an active co-operation programme with the countries of the Economic and Social Commission for western Asia region. Eurostat will continue to invest in this project in collaboration with the UN. 4.3 Conclusions on 2004 Work Programme Some general conclusions of the chair: As the community of environmental statisticians in Europe, Eurostat finds itself in a phase of transition which is equally demanding and exciting: Routine tasks, such as the Joint Questionnaire, are being further expanded (e.g. to Regions) and improved step by step. Necessary and ambitious initiatives due to the enlargement and to increased consideration of environmental concerns in sectoral policy areas, e.g. IRENA, TAPAS and the PHARE programmes, are performing successfully. New developments that will require further attention and resources are: the Sustainable Development Indicators, where the Task Force will propose an initial list of indicators early in 2004; the implementation of the Waste Statistics Regulation, where the focus is currently on pilot studies and manuals; statistics on chemicals/pesticides/hazardous substances, developed with a view to the REACH proposal, the new chemicals legislation. The link from these basic work domains to the environmental accounts as a coherent framework of economic satellite accounts can lead to important synergies in the work. In summary, all these developments and their data needs constitute an increased and further increasing demand on the capacities of all partners in the ESS. This potential conflict, especially in times of tight budgets, was addressed repeatedly in the discussions, and must be managed with forethought and care. There is a need for increased and improved co-operation and co-ordination of all partners (NSIs and other official national statistical services, ESTAT, DG ENV, EEA, OECD, ) in order to harmonize reporting obligations and to manage data collection exercises successfully. 5. PROVISIONAL MEETINGS PLAN FOR 2004 The chairman presented the timetable for meetings for the rest of The meetings programme for 2004 is not ENV/033/02 (2003) Page 10

11 yet agreed, but an overall reduction in the number of meetings is expected. 6. ANY OTHER BUSINESS RELATED TO THEMES 70 AND 71 There was no other business related to Themes 70 and ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTS 8.1 Report of work carried out in 2003 and planned Work - Programme 2004 A. Presentation - Doc. ENV/WG/027/08 (2003) & Doc. ENV/WG/028/08.1 (2003) The objective of environmental accounts is to satisfy user demand for statistics needed for integrated economic and environmental policy making. The value added of the handover of the environmental accounts from Eurostat B1 to Eurostat F3 will allow a closer integration between environmental statistics, sustainable development indicators and environmental accounts. The work is now in the hands of a new team which was presented to the Working Party. Eurostat wants to complete it as soon as possible with a new seconded national expert. Due to restrictions on external contracts, important support has been lost, as the external team had been very pro-active in the development of methodology, the analysis of data and preparation of publications in the different areas of environmental accounting. A new data base of environmental data is now being loaded into ENVSTAT. The new System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA) 2003, jointly undertaken by UN, the European Commission, the IMF, the OECD and the World Bank, is an important tool for a harmonised environmental accounting. It has been briefly presented to the Working Group The paper "European Strategy for Environmental accounting" which had been discussed and approved in 2002 by the Working Party is on the agenda of the November meeting of the SPC. This paper presents priority areas recommended for harmonised reporting EU wide (air emission, water flows, material flows, environmental protection expenditure, environmental industry, environmental taxes, forest timber, oil and gas). It also presents waste, land, water quality and emission accounts as areas for short-term development and experimental implementation in volunteer countries. On the basis of the methodological progress realised in past years in several areas of environmental accounting, and due to limited human resources, the Working Party considered that the activities should focus on: - The promotion of data, with a regular publication of results, in areas for which an advanced methodological framework has been assessed in recent years. Methodological manuals have to be translated and promoted. The co-operation with Member States and DG ENV in the context of a grant agreements framework, structured to meet the Community requirements. The Working Party agreed to concentrate the work on the priorities set out in doc. ENV/WG/028/08.1 (2003) and examined the present state and future developments in each area of environmental accounts: assets accounts, flow accounts, environmental economic statistics and accounts. The work should focus on collection, publication and promotion of environmental accounting data and on the co-operation with Member States. This will be promoted through a grant agreements framework, as far as possible. ENV/033/02 (2003) Page 11

12 8.2 Forests (Asset Accounts I) A. Presentation - Doc. ENV/ WG/027/08 (2003) Data is collected on timber accounts on the basis of a standard set of tables, which is being included in ENVSTAT. Recreational and environmental functions of forests are still in a test phase. Participants indicated the importance of regularly producing data on timber accounts Concentrate the work on the collection and publication of timber accounts. 8.3 Subsoil and other natural Assets (Asset Accounts II) A. Presentation - Doc. ENV/ WG/027/08 (2003) Data on oil and gas is collected on the basis of a new standard set of tables. For other natural assets, the priority order determined last year by this Working Party was land, then water quality and fish. But a recent enquiry on the advancement of land accounting in Member States was quite disappointing. International Energy Agency (IEA) told the participants about work done in the context of land accounting. Participants gave a priority to oil and gas data. Focus the work on collection and publication of data on oil and gas. Reactive the work on land accounting. 8.4 NAMEA air emission accounts (Flow Accounts I) A. Presentation - Doc. ENV/WG/029/08.4 (2003) The compilation guide is almost finalised. The Task Force made good progress in its June meeting. Area of NAMEA air emission has been considered as essential, and data should be widely published and promoted. Publish the compilation guide including last comments, load the ENVSTAT base and promote the compilation guide. 8.5 Water Accounting (Flow Accounts II) A. Presentation - Doc. ENV/WG/027/08 (2003) The methodological handbook written in co-operation with UN should be in the form of a complete draft at the London Group meeting. A set of standard tables has been developed. Netherlands would like to work on this area. ENV/033/02 (2003) Page 12

13 Publish data from the set of standard tables. 8.6 NAMEA waste accounts (Flow Accounts III) A. Presentation - Doc. ENV/WG/027/08 (2003) This area is still in the form of pilot studies. Waste accounts were considered important in relationship with material flows statistics. Create a Waste Accounting Task Force, linking to the material flow module and benefiting from synergy with waste statistics. 8.7 Economy-wide material flow accounts (Flow Accounts IV) A. Presentation - Doc. ENV/WG/027/08 (2003) Future work is required to improve the quality and comparability of the accounts. Most participants indicated their wish to participate in a Workshop (Sweden, France) or a Task Force (UK, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Finland, Netherlands, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Norway). A Task Force and a Workshop will be organised in 2004 in conjunction with the European Topic Centre (ETC) on waste and MFA. 8.8 Environmental Expenditure Statistics (Environmental Economics I) A. Presentation - Doc. ENV/WG/027/08 (2003) The objective is to collect and disseminate comparable statistics within the frameworks SERIEE and SBS (legal basis). Member States will send comments on conversion guidelines between the joint questionnaire and environmental protection expenditure accounts. Organise a meeting covering all areas on environmental economic statistics and accounts. 8.9 Environmental Expenditure Accounts and Environment Industry (Environmental Economics II) A. Presentation - Doc. ENV/WG/027/08 (2003) The work on environmental protection expenditure recently focussed on the development of methods for estimating EU-15 aggregates. ENV/033/02 (2003) Page 13

14 Several participants indicated the importance attached by governments to statistics on environmental industry. Launch a pilot study on environmental industry, to develop an agreed standard estimation procedure Environmental Taxes (Environmental Economics III) A. Presentation - Doc. ENV/WG/ /08.10 (2003) Eurostat regularly produces Environmental tax revenue statistics without a breakdown by industry/final user. Such a breakdown would be considered as a major improvement. Load standard tables integrating environmental taxes into NAMEA, in order to know if the data is available at country level, and at which level of detail Conclusions A general agreement could be found on priorities for future work: The first priority is the regular production of data and its promotion, to show the users that environmental accounting can provide clear information. "Statistics in focus" publications can be helpful in this context The second priority is to develop the co-operation with Member States through grant agreements. In the future, Eurostat will try to better formulate its requirements on the basis of the main objectives of the Commission, around which grants agreements will be structured. For year 2003, Euros should be available. Participants were given a list of eligible areas and were invited to send their proposals before the end of September. ENV/033/02 (2003) Page 14